Forced into a romantic relationship

Chapter 384 An Astonishing Discovery

Han Zhou went upstairs not because he knew where to look for Xiao Xiaoxiao, but because he was unsure what would happen after taking half a sleeping pill and needed to find a place away from everyone to use the method in the brocade pouch.

Xiao Xiaoxiao disappeared without a trace. If he wants to find her, he will probably have to disappear for a while. If there are other people nearby when he takes the sleeping pills, he might take them with him.

However, he had actually felt a sense of familiarity with Xiao Xiaoxiao's disappearance for a long time. It was very similar to what happened when they went to explore the haunted unfinished building. At that time, they thought everyone else had disappeared, but in everyone's eyes, the ones who had truly disappeared were them.

It must be said that these two things do have many similarities.

Of course, there are differences. For example, he disappeared with Xiao Xiaoxiao that time, but this time only Xiao Xiaoxiao disappeared...

Thinking about this, Han Zhou suddenly had a bold conjecture—

Perhaps this is the reason why Xiao Xiaoxiao made an excuse to send Ouyang Lianyu away?
The reason the two disappeared together was because they were very close to each other at the time. As Xiao Xiaoxiao's roommate tonight, if Ouyang Lianyu didn't leave the room, the two would sleep next to each other all night, and the distance would only be closer.

Perhaps Xiao Xiaoxiao had already sensed that she would disappear, and in order not to implicate Ouyang Lianyu and cause her to disappear as well, she made an excuse to send her away?
Han Zhou felt that this was highly likely.

He was quite certain that Xiao Xiaoxiao had enough sleeping pills. The fact that she used such a clumsy excuse as "I've run out of sleeping pills" to get Ouyang Lianyu to come to his room in the middle of the night must mean she had some ulterior motive.

He couldn't think of any other reason besides worrying that Ouyang Lianyu would be implicated.

It couldn't possibly be to put him and Ouyang Lianyu alone in a room, and then use this opportunity to bring them together, could it?

Han Zhou returned to his room while pondering. This time, he didn't hesitate at all before getting into bed and resolutely locked the door.

Having learned his lesson tonight, he resolved never to leave his bedroom door unlocked again.

Lying flat on the bed, he took out sleeping pills from his inventory, broke one in half, put one half into a bottle, and held the other half in his hand to examine it closely.

Even finding Xiao Xiaoxiao required sleeping pills; this stuff was indeed related to her…

Taking one sleeping pill will quickly put you to sleep. I wonder what the effect will be if I take half a pill? Will I fall into a half-asleep, half-awake state?
He seemed to be deep in thought, and without much hesitation, he swallowed the sleeping pills in his hand.

At the same time, a line of small print popped up in front of his eyes.

"Would you like to use half of your current points to proceed to the next step?"

"Yes."

This was the first time Han Zhou had spent his points outside of modifying his status and shopping in the mall. Watching his points rapidly decrease, he couldn't help but feel a little heartache.

To his surprise, after half of the points disappeared, nothing particularly changed for either himself or his surroundings.

To put it simply, nothing happened.

Putting everything else aside, he should have felt at least a little sleepy after taking half a sleeping pill, but instead of feeling sleepy at all, he felt energetic.

Could something have gone wrong?

Han Zhou muttered to himself, but he still trusted the status bar's abilities, so he wasn't in a hurry. He lay on the bed and waited silently for a while, but no change appeared.

No, perhaps the changes have already occurred, but they are just not immediately apparent...

He seemed lost in thought, and couldn't help but think of the time he and Xiao Xiaoxiao sneaked into the unfinished building at night. At that time, they thought everyone else had disappeared, but in everyone's eyes, the ones who had truly disappeared were them.

So the change could be...?

As if he had just thought of something, Han Zhou quickly got out of bed, unlocked the bedroom door, and hurried down to the living room.

As expected, the living room was indeed empty.

To avoid making a wrong judgment, he quickly checked the entire villa again, including every room on the second floor, but he didn't see Mo Yixia or the others.

Everyone disappeared.

No, it should be him who has disappeared.

Just like with that unfinished building, although the surroundings are still the same, it's a completely different place from reality.

Although it sounds unbelievable, it seems to be the case at present.

Han Zhou clicked his tongue in amazement, having no time to consider whether this was a parallel universe or a mirror space, but instead pondering Xiao Xiaoxiao's whereabouts.

According to the clues in the brocade pouch, Xiao Xiaoxiao was likely in this place as well, but he had just searched the entire villa and couldn't find her anywhere.

Unless that person can run to another "parallel world", she must be nearby. Since she's not in the villa, she can only be outside.

With that thought in mind, Han Zhou left the living room and headed towards the front door.

As he passed by the kitchen, he glanced at the wall clock in the living room and suddenly noticed something very strange.

The clock hands are not pointing to one o'clock, but closer to eleven o'clock.

He remembered clearly that he took the sleeping pills around 1 a.m.

He pondered for a moment and took out his phone. The time on the phone was 1:11, the same time he remembered, but there was no signal at all.

Strange, why is the time on the wall clock different from the time on my phone...?

Han Zhou found it strange. With his photographic memory, he remembered looking at the clock on the wall when he first arrived at the villa in the afternoon. The time was a little after six o'clock, which was close to the time he arrived at the villa. Even if there was a discrepancy, it shouldn't be as big as it is now, a difference of more than two hours.

He had a headache and suddenly sighed, thinking that even if he understood these things now, it would be useless, since all his memories of this period would be lost after he returned. It would be better to find Xiao Xiaoxiao as soon as possible.

Just then, he suddenly heard a noise from the kitchen next door and immediately rushed in.

The kitchen light was on, and the refrigerator was half-open. The refrigerator door was quite high, but he could still spot the two shoes underneath at a glance.

Han Zhou remembered clearly that these were Xiao Xiaoxiao's height-increasing shoes.

Clearly, the other person was hiding behind the refrigerator. He breathed a slight sigh of relief, but something was strange; he had checked the kitchen earlier, but hadn't seen anyone there.

Although it was strange, he didn't say anything, but quietly approached the refrigerator, intending to give Xiao Xiaoxiao behind the refrigerator door a surprise.

However, the moment he approached the refrigerator, something unbelievable happened.

Suddenly, the short figure hiding behind the refrigerator door ran backward and then disappeared through the wall!
That's right, it can go through walls.

"Fuck!"

A curse word slipped out of his mouth uncontrollably. Han Zhou's eyes widened, and he suddenly wondered if he was dreaming.

But if it's not a dream, why can Xiao Xiaoxiao walk through walls?

It took him a long time to regain his composure. He quickly walked to the wall where Xiao Xiaoxiao had disappeared, and tentatively touched it with his hand. It felt hard and cold, clearly a solid wall.

The thought had barely crossed his mind when he suddenly felt a chill on his arm. His eyes widened as he saw that his arm had somehow passed through the wall and was slowly making its way inside!

Before he could figure out what was going on, he had already passed through the wall and left the villa, arriving outside in the pouring rain.

Under the raging wind and rain, the view outside was blurred. The rain was icy cold, and the large raindrops hitting his body caused a slight pain. The cold air, carrying the fragrance of earth, entered his nose, making him shiver involuntarily.

All of this seemed to be telling Han Zhou that he wasn't dreaming, and that passing through the wall just now wasn't an illusion.

The rain outside was heavy, and he was soaked to the bone almost instantly. Just as he was about to go back through the wall, he saw a faint light coming from the villa next door.

It's worth mentioning that the lights in that villa were green, like a scene from a horror movie, giving people a gloomy and scary feeling.

Seriously? It's a ghost story, with people walking through walls?
Han Zhou became increasingly confused. He realized that Xiao Xiaoxiao had just left in the direction that seemed to be where this villa was located, so he became worried and rushed over.

The villa's main gate was locked. For safety reasons, he didn't use his ability to pass through walls to enter the villa. Instead, he found a window to observe the environment inside.

The villa was very dark, with only a faint green light and extremely limited visibility. If it weren't for the several cameras he saw, Han Zhou would probably have really suspected that the place was haunted.

He had noticed that the eerie green light was emitted from something resembling a glow stick, and it was hung in many places. In some places, there were even green screens set up, making it look like a movie shooting scene.

Although the scene is quite shabby.

Han Zhou pondered. If this place was like a parallel world to reality, did that mean that a similar scene was set up in the villa next door in reality? Or perhaps a film crew was shooting a horror movie there?
If that's the case, then the terrifying woman that Teacher Ouyang saw last night can be explained...

He suddenly felt enlightened. Seeing that there was no danger, he tentatively reached out his hand to the wall in front of him and passed through it again.

Upon entering the villa, the feeling of being pelted by the heavy rain immediately disappeared, but the wet and sticky sensation was still quite uncomfortable. He endured the discomfort and slowly walked forward, looking around at the villa.

"They really are filming a horror movie..."

The room was filled with gruesome props such as severed limbs, and the crude workmanship alone showed that the film crew was indeed short of money.

Analyzing whether the film crew had money was not Han Zhou's original intention. He mainly wanted to see if there was any trace of Xiao Xiaoxiao in the villa. However, after searching, all he could find were these crude props.

Just then, he suddenly heard a noise upstairs. His expression turned serious. Considering that Xiao Xiaoxiao would hide from him like before, he immediately ran upstairs as fast as he could.

However, since the commotion was from a floor away, he wasn't sure where the sound came from. After reaching the second floor, he first glanced towards the hallway, then used his "wall-penetrating" ability to enter the room closest to the stairwell. He then used his wall-penetrating ability to rush forward, searching each room along the way—

Going through the door is too slow; this method will be much faster in finding Xiao Xiaoxiao.

During this period, he actually figured out a lot of things.

Han Zhou remembered clearly that when he was alone in the kitchen tonight, he didn't make a sound, but everyone was convinced that they heard him shout "Holy shit!"

He was pretty sure he hadn't made that sound then, but just now, he had indeed yelled "Holy shit!" in the kitchen.

In other words, what Mo Yixia and the others heard at that time was likely the sound he had just made.

In other words, people heard voices from the future from the past.

On the surface, this seems to be the case, but if we consider the wall clock in the villa's lobby that is two hours slow, this conclusion may need to be revised.

The real fact should be that "he went back to the past from the present".

While it's impossible to explain why the villa was empty after returning to the past, this is clearly a more plausible explanation.

A similar incident seemed to have occurred during the previous nighttime exploration of the unfinished building. It's said that the others who explored the building together heard strange noises. Now that I think about it, those noises they heard might very well have been caused by him and Xiao Xiaoxiao.

The two traveled from the future to the past, and although others could not see them, they could hear the sounds they created.

Of course, there are still many inexplicable aspects to this speculation. For example, in terms of time, the time when he and Xiao Xiaoxiao disappeared and the time when others heard the strange noise were roughly the same. If you had to divide it into past and future, the difference would probably only be a few minutes, which is far less than the two-hour time span of this time.

For example, when they were at the unfinished building, he and Xiao Xiaoxiao were chatting after they disappeared. Although others said they heard some sounds that looked like human voices, no one suggested that they were the two of them.

This time was different. Apart from himself, everyone else was certain that they heard his voice, even though they were not far apart.

"Could it be because I didn't go back to the past with Xiao Xiaoxiao this time, but instead used points to get here? The former is like sneaking in, while the latter is a legitimate paid trip, so the signal is much better?"

After much thought, Han Zhou could only come up with this one explanation.

In addition, he made even richer associations.

Assuming that the time you disappeared with Xiao Xiaoxiao cost zero points, this time it cost one hundred and forty-seven points. Zero points can only push time forward a few minutes, but one hundred and forty-seven points can push time forward two hours.

If we convert it this way, is there a possibility that...?

As the number of points consumed increases, the time that can be pushed back will also increase.
In other words, if he spends enough points, can he go back to a year ago, ten years ago, or even to any point in the past he wants to go to?

(End of this chapter)